.avi in quicktime

There is no single codec for movies that have .avi extensions. AVI is a container format, not a specific type of file. An AVI movie may use one of the Indeo codecs (there are at least four that I'm aware of, none of which have been ported to Mac OS X) or one of the various flavors of DivX, among other possibilities. You'll have to find out what codec was used for the movies you want to view to determine what you need. Note that not all codecs for the various .avi movies are available for QuickTime.

If you want to try "hit and miss", you can try the codecs at http://www.divx.com/ and http://www.3ivx.com/ and see if one of them will work for you. Note that you need to look for Universal Binary versions. You can also give this player a try:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Sorry but can't find the button to post a new topic. This is a question dealing with the "white screen" but not AVI. I downloaded 4 internet video files and they worked fine several times. Now suddenly Quicktime loads these files very slowly and all I get is a white screen and a dotted progress bar. The file is still on the computer but I can no longer access all but one. Also on that one file, when I play it full screen the frame rate has slowed down so that there is no longer fluid motion. Help.

I just solved this problem for my situation (trying to use QT to play .avi files with the MP42 codec) by downloading the Windows Media Components for Quicktime from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx

It's a small, free download and well worth a try.

thanks for the link... but now the files have a screaching sound in the audio?!?! 🙂

i had the same issue and that d/l allowed the video to play, but messed up the audio. b4, it was perfect audio and no video?!?! i have copied the files to an external drive and tried them on my pc laptop, they work flawlessly... but my G5 can't seem to do squat with them?!?! what a pain in the arse!

Now you have a component conflicting with the Flip4Mac components. You probably need to remove something from the Library/QuickTime folder. I'll list the components I have installed and give you a link to where you can find them;

RealMediaExporter.component
FFusion.component
DivX 6 Decoder.component
DVCPROHDVideoOutputCodec.component
3ivx D4 4.5.1 for OSX
AppleHDVCodec.component
Theora.component
DVCPROHDCodec.component
FCP Uncompressed 422.component
WMACodec.bundle
Save as AVI.component
DVCPROHDVideoOutputClock.component
IMXCodec.component
Flip4Mac WMV Import.component
on2vp3.component
OggImport.component
AppleIntermediateCodec.component
LiveType.component
FFusion-4.0a1-ppc.component
DVCPROHDVideoDigitizer.component
DesktopVideoOut.component
DVCPROHDMuxer.component
Flip4Mac WMV Export.component
DivX 6 Encoder.component
srtImport.bundle
LAMEEncoder.component
AviImporter-r7 (ppc).component
DVCPROHDVideoOutput.component

http://insanityflows.net/archive/index.php?title=QuickTime#FFusion.componentversion3.0

You also need to install the new A52Codec.component which can be found at the same link or VersionTracker. I can play just about any AVI I run across, except the ones with MP2 for an Audio track. 😉

FW800 Dual 1.25, TiBook 667, 1.4GHz Sawtooth

I was having the same issues when I recently purchased a Casio Exilim EX-S600. (Great little pocket cam, BTW.) The camera took great AVI movies which I couldn't play on my Mac via Quicktime. Oddly enough, the AVI movies my 4-yr old Casio Exilim 2mp camera made played fine.

I tried the divx.com and 3ivx.com links with no luck.

Then someone pointed me to http://www.isquint.org (which is actually a video conversion app for Video > iPods.

Worked for me!

I have been sooooo disappointed in Mac/Apple every time i try to open an AVI in QuickTime (Pro), IMovie or IDVD. Going to the Mac QT page for extra plug-in is useless and confusing.

If anyone bought a Mac because they believed the junk about it being a better multimedia machine I'm afraid they were wrong. Apple really needs to get their act together on this increasing frustrating reality. Face it, the world doesn’t use OT, and QT can't do a majority of the world. I really feel ripped off paying for OT Pro.

A friend had a helmet cam recording of his record breaking run up Pikes Peak on a motorcycle. During celebrations we wanted to watch it so I proudly said “Hey we can watch it on my Mac”. Wrong – how embarrassing. I tried everything I could to get my Intel MacBook Pro with it’s beautiful 17 1n glossy screen to download and open the USB connected digital AVI file. I Movie didn’t see the camera, and neither did the finder. I finally tried opening iPhoto, which then made the disc appear on my desktop. I copied the AVI file to my desktop and tried everything I had to open it. No luck. Just then someone arrived with a cheap PC and immediately downloaded and played the movie for about 20 people. The Mac jokes were not amusing, but were I felt well deserved.

Apple needs to back up their rhetoric and quit making excuses about how many types of codec are out there. This doesn’t seem to bother anyone except Mac users.

If you're planning on using video on a Mac and you're starting with AVI, you're gonna have problems (it's like wanting to create a highway and starting with swampland). This USED to be a big deal until the release of several free tools that will turn the AVI into something useful. Once past the conversion, you can use any of the tools on the Mac to create pretty much whatever you like.

Sure, it's an extra step, but it's a step that not only allows you to PLAY your video, but play WITH your video.

"AVI, an acronym for Audio Video Interleave, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992, as part of the Video for Windows technology. AVI files contain both audio and video data in a standard container that allows simultaneous playback. Like DVDs, AVI files support multiple audio and video streams, although these features are rarely used. Most AVI files also use the file format extensions developed by the Matrox OpenDML group in February 1996." --Wikipedia

If you want to watch a Microsoft media format developed specifically to play using Windows technology, then buy a PC. Apple has never stated that its "frame-to-frame" synchronization technology would fully support any of the "interleaved" synchronized file formats. In fact, just the opposite is true. Apple has, on numerous occasions, gone out of its way to warn users of limitations and problems when mixing these technologies. Unfortunately, most people refuse to "read the label" or heed such warnings. Instead, they seem to adopt a mindset that asserts, "If its a movie, then QuickTime is supposed to play it." Unfortunatly, this is like saying, "Oil is a petrolium distillate, therefore my car is supposed to run on it the same as it would on gas."

Nice rag, but you failed to mention that the Windows world also needs to install various Codecs for various Videos. That's why there's sites like Doom9. I have to install Codecs on my Windows systems just as I do my Macs. I also install them for my Windows friends who apparently, like you, don't have a clue about Codecs. All they know is that the Video won't play on their Windows machine.

And QT Pro is all about Editing and Exporting features, it doesn't install a single extra Codec. It is not a Codec Pack.

If you go back to my last post and use the link at the bottom of the post to install the Free Codecs I listed, you will be able to play/export just about any AVI in QT. Note, some of those listed Codecs are from FCP and are not free, but you don't need those to play AVIs. You will also have to pay extra if you want to Export to WMV, but I would avoid that whenever possible. There are too many free alternatives to WMV that when used will help in keeping Bill from obtaining further monopolies.

I also make no guarantees for Intel Macs, as I don't own one....yet 😉

FW800 Dual 1.25, TiBook 667, 1.4GHz Sawtooth

Thanks, and you are correct about my knowledge of codecs (clueless). The link to http://insanityflows.net/archive/index.php?title=QuickTime#FFusion.componentversion3.0 was helpful.

Also, I found that iSquint (shareware http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19769 ) was able to convert the AVI to a QT format I could then import into iMovie.

Is it not reasonable to assume that if someone as clueless as me can (eventually) find a shareware program to fix this inadequacy in QT, that the full-time Apple engineers should have been able to do so for the cost of QT Pro?

Is it not reasonable to assume that if someone as clueless as me can (eventually) find a shareware program to fix this inadequacy in QT, that the full-time Apple engineers should have been able to do so for the cost of QT Pro?

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that Apple would pay is own engineers to find ways to support codecs used by other companies before their own especially when some of these codecs are, technologically speaking, "out of date" and particularly in view of all the problems associated with the current round of QT upgrades. In addition, the newer/better codecs are proprietary and it would be illegal for Apple to reverse engineer solutions to "this inadequacy" without paying "due compensation" to the original codec developers. On the other hand, if Apple were to pay such fees, it would likely pass this cost on to the end consumer, whether or not the end user chooses to utilize the codecs for which he or she is now required to pay Apple. If you look around, you will note that the most popular "pay as you go" QT components run anywhere from $20 to $50 a pop. Even if Apple is able to work out a "good deal" with these copyright holders, the price of QT Pro would likely double.

AVI is supposed to be interleaved, a bit of video, a bit of audio

vvvaaavvvaaavvvaaavvvaaavvvaaavvvaaavvvaaa

AVI as a format was abandoned by Microsoft, but then, since PC people knew that to mean "video" anyone and everyone started creating programs that created AVI's outside the specification (and without regards to what anyone else was doing). As a result, AVI as an extension means very little anymore. You really have no idea about the characteristics of the video. Because QuickTime is a more controlled video environment, allowing unknown video into the mix will yield unknown results. So, the solution becomes allow unknown results, or force the user to solve their own problem with non-standard video.

As a user of a digital video camera and iMovie/iDVD, I can attest that reliable results are important to me. Without downloading any extra codecs, I can compress video for the iPod, send it back out to the camera, burn a dvd, strip the video track and just use the background audio, remove the audio to just display the video, speed it up, slow it down, yank out a frame, and do any number of things to it.

I was more in favor of an Apple solution before easy free tools were released. Now, I don't have any video codecs on my computer (MBP) that didn't come with it and just convert everything with iSquint or VisualHub (commercial, but worth every penny). I never have to worry about AVI (or whether or not there's an Intel codec) again. And when I use these videos on my next computer, QuickTime will still be able to handle them without a "codec pack" install.

Hi

I have a digital camera and wanted to use the movie clips in QT. After amonth of downloading 100s of CODECs and convertors to no avail, I got this from another forum and it works for me. Although I'll now have to go through and convert them all, at least I can now make an imovie!

http://homepage.mac.com/major4/

Import the movie files from your cam then output to a quicktime format. Import this file and, hopefully, the sound and video will be there.

Jo

...After amonth of downloading 100s of CODECs and convertors to no avail...

Did you try removing all the Codecs from Library/QuickTime and trying each Codec independently? The QuickTime Player has a "Pecking Order" when it comes to Codecs. It doesn't matter how many Codecs you install, the QT Player will use the Codec that's first in it's pecking order.

Take for instance the mp42 msmpeg4v2 Codec, which appears to be a popular Codec for a number of Cameras. It appears that QTs pecking order for this Codec is Flip4Mac. It doesn't matter what other Codecs you have installed that can decode mp42 msmpeg4v2, as long as Flip4Mac is in your Library/QuickTime folder, QT will use the Flip4Mac decoder. You have to physically remove the Flip4Mac Codec to have the QT Player use a different Codec.

Other Codecs that can decode mp42 msmpeg4v2 are the; DivX codec, I'm not sure if it actually does mp42 msmpeg, but it does say it will decode mp43 msmpeg, you'll have to try it. The 3ivX Codec says it decodes a number of Codecs in the M4S2, MP43, MP4S, etc. range. The CASIO AVI Importer Component says it does mp42 msmpeg4v2 along with a number other Codecs. The FFusion3 Codec does msmpeg4v1, msmpeg4v2, and others. Then you have the Standalone msmpeg4v1 and msmpeg4v2 Codecs. There's probably more that I'm missing.
But, as long as the Flip4Mac decoder is in the Library/Quicktime Folder, you might as well not have these Codecs installed, 'cause QT will not use them. You need to remove everything from the Library/Quicktime folder to the Desktop, relaunch QT Player and try each Codec Independently.

These Codecs can be found at .

You should READ your Cameras instruction manual, download and install the Correct Codec for your Camera, and test it with the Correct Codec installed. If that doesn't work, test the recommended Codecs Independently, as in, remove all other Codecs to the Desktop and test each Codec by itself. If it still doesn't work, I'd take the darned Camera back and get a different one, if possible 😉

Having to re-encode the Cameras output would be unacceptable to me. I do use ffmpegX to re-encode a few problem videos, but having to re-encode direct output from a Camera before I could edit it wouldn't cut it with me.